modeling leadership & traversing power structures

Modeling Leadership

@SemanticWill

@SemanticWill | Will Evans

Modeling Leadership

&Traversing Power Structures

Outline• Quick History

• Power, Authority, Influence

• Organizations as Systems

• Modeling Conversation

• Enframed by language

• The limits of the grammar of efficiency

• The Paine Principle

• Stance, Tools, Experiences

@SemanticWill | Will Evans@SemanticWill | Will Evans

TO PWN A THING, YOU MUST FIRST GROK A THING


Governing Dynamics of Social Systems

Power

Authority

Influence


Let’s start with a little Frederick Taylor and management science


His ideas about management were informed by the Prussian Military


His ideas of control where shaped by the penal system of discipline & punish


Taylor’s ideas about human nature where informed by Freud…


Who did an epic amount of coke.


But also the more sober ideas of Kurt Lewin – who was first to study group

dynamics

Who was influenced by Max Weber


Three forms of authority distinguished by Max Weber

Charismatic

Traditional

Rational-Legal


Power is “the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out

her own will despite resistance”


Domination is “the probability that a command within a specific context will be obeyed”


Authority is ‘legitimate domination’


Authority is more enduring than non-legitimate forms of domination

• Authority is related to the belief in legitimacy

• It may persist even if those obeying have a greater material interest in disobeying

• Authority is engendered by power


Foucault and Power


Authority is predicated on power

• Power is not a substance. It is not something you possess

• Power is a relation between people

• A set of actions on the actions of others

• Every relation is a power relation


Exercising power is structuring the field of action of others.


Power and Knowledge

• Power and Knowledge are intertwingled

• Every field of power creates a body of knowledge

• Every body of knowledge creates a field of power

• Power/Knowledge is a flow.

• Knowledge is encoded in language


Power is created through 3 axes of subjectivity

Language (knowledge)

Governance (rules)

Ethics (cultural norms)


Language enframes process;

Process becomes the Panopticon


SO WHAT OF INFLUENCE?


Influence is the ability to affect other’s beliefs and behavior without power.

Influence requires a defined context.

That context we’ll call a social system.


Teams are social systems


As are organizations


SOCIAL SYSTEMS ARE SYSTEMS OF CONVERSATION


IF ORGANIZATIONS ARE SYSTEMS OF CONVERSATION

We need a model of conversation to understand power dynamics, decision making, and influence


Cybernetic model of conversation


One participant starts with a goal or need


Context must be articulated


Shared language is negotiated


A symbolic token is transmitted


The symbol is interpreted, and sent back


Which can lead to further exchanges


And agreement (transaction) can happen


Yeah, but…


Kanban creates a shared context..

Using cards as “social objects”

Which allow teams to have conversations


ORGANIZATIONS ARE CONVERSATION SYSTEMS

An organization creates itself through conversation with practices encoded in language

A system is defined by boundaries between itself and its environment

Social Systems are created by selecting what is meaningful to reproduce itself (Autopoiesis)


An organization increases it's efficiency by creating and refining a shared

language.

This common language helps the organization arrive at decisions more

efficiently.


Yet while language fosters efficiency, it also limits the organizations ability to

evolve.


The language and grammar of efficiency is very different from the language of innovation – yet both are necessary


Constrained by a limited vocabulary, the organization becomes unable to adapt to

exogenous shocks to the system.


Unable to adapt, the organization eventually declines and dies.


By continually changing its language, and it's conversations, an organization may

continually regenerate itself.



The Paine Principle

An outsider introducing new language may incite radical change

Named after Thomas Paine - an outsider to the America colonies, who brought a new language of radical freedom, and gave a voice to the revolution.

(He was, in essence, translating Voltaire into the context and vernacular of colonial America)


Like any organization, TLC is a set of conversations among people. Like many organizations faced with the market

conditions it sees itself, it needed to change to meet new challenges.


TLC couldn’t use it’s existing language & conversations to change the way it handled adversity.

So it sought new languages… and a new grammar for structuring conversations.


To support an organizations future viability, effective decision makers actively introduce change into the system.

They do so by generating new language that appropriate groups in the organization come to understand or embrace.


Design Thinking brought about a new way for teams to collaborate and produce value, but it

also introduced a new language of collaboration as well as a grammar.


• For organizations to regenerate itself, it must first recognize the limitations of its current language. Then it must seek new language domains, and translate them into conversations the organization may understand and embrace.


WHAT IS THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP?


Leaderships role is…

• About the reduction of uncertainty?

• About reinforcing shared values?

• Creating a framework for conversations?

• Introduction of new languages?

• Strategic reduction (or introduction) of friction?


It’s the role of leaders within an organization to incubate and then

introduce new languages


A thought…

• You cannot use the language of the past to articulate a vision for the future.

• Current language can only write a narrative of futures past.


Stance, Tools & Experiences


Stance


Tools


research personas mental modelsconceptual

models

task flows sketchingopen card-

sorting strategy brief

Use UX tools to explore social graphs


Experiences


Review


❯ Define the problem space Understand the governing dynamics of social ❯

systems Defined Power, Authority and Influence within a social ❯

graph Stated that social systems are systems of ❯

conversation Modeled Conversation❯ Modeled Framing: Stance, Tools, Experience❯ .... mapping influence in organizations❯

So where are we?


Place all the actors


Ask the Ten “Who’s”

1. Who is making the decision?

2. Who else will effect that decision?

3. Besides those players, are there other players?

4. Who else effects those players?

5. Who supports this outcome?

6. Who is against this outcome?

7. Who benefits?

8. Who loses? Or Who thinks they lose?

9. Who loves the Status Quo?

10.Who hates the Status Quo?


Add all salient factors


Cluster them by context

Your team

External team

External Company

Country

Society


Define their roles

define roles

champion

boss

peer

gatekeeper

pawn


For all primary roles, ask these questions:

1. Who are the actors?

2. What are their roles?

3. For each actor, what do they value?

4. What is the very next outcome you need to get close to your goal?

5. Return to 3

6. Traverse across the graph


Traverse the Graph


• The task of discovering the requisite variety of tools and disciplines is iterative.

• The source of new languages is questions – questions that spark new conversations


As a leader, ask yourself…

• What questions should you be asking?




• What questions are you not supposed to ask?





• > Ask those.





• > Ask those.

• Ask questions that don’t come easy.





• > Ask those.

• Ask questions that don’t come easy.

• Ask the questions that are tough, awkward, taboo.

Thanks!

Will Evans | @SemanticWill

tlclabs.co

modeling leadership & traversing power structures

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